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KENT COUNTY, Mich. (April 16, 2014)– Former youth counselor Jeffrey Marchione of Alto was sentenced to 30 years in prison for molesting one of the teens he used to mentor in West Michigan and for possessing what prosecutors called a “massive collection” of child porn.

The U.S. Assistant District Attorney said it contained more than 42,000 still images of child porn along with more than 1,600 videos, some of which included a child being tied up and raped.

Marchione was also found guilty of sending a manifesto to a federal agent who was conducting a sting operation.

It was called “Handbook 4 Child Lovers”, which agents said provided graphic images and details on how to find and molest a child without the child telling anyone about it.

One of those suggestions in the manual was to become a counselor.

Detective Trooper Chris Prevette of the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit works with the Internet Crimes against Children Task Force , or ICAC.

He said the task force investigates many of the crimes against children here in West Michigan.

“We are a multi-jurisdictional task force, across the state of Michigan, across the country. It’s funded by the Department of Justice and we have agencies all over Michigan that assist in the investigation of child exploitation cases,” he said.

Prevette said folks in West Michigan need to be on the lookout for those who possess child pornography and report it so more children aren’t continually victimized.

“The trade, in human trafficking and child exploitation is a billion dollar industry yearly,” said Prevette.

It can often result in the sexual abuse of a child in or around the home of those that possess the pornography.

Assistant U.S. District Attorney Tessa Hessmiller said in addition to having more than 43,000 images of child porn, other allegations surfaced against Marchione during the federal investigation.

She provided this timeline in federal court.

-In 1992, she said Marchione allegedly had sex with 13 year-old who lived next door.

-In 1996, he became a foster parent, which lasted through 2006.

-In 2001, Hessmiller said a different child accused him of molestation, but he passed a lie detector test.

-In 2002 , she said federal agents learned from a chat session with him that he claimed to have went to an area of the city where he could pay for sex from young men or boys.

-In 2002, she said there was also a report of alleged abuse of an adopted son.

-In 2009 to 2010, Marchione’s former Mentee said he was sexually abused. Marchione later pleaded guilty to that charge following the federal indictment for pornography.

-In 2010 , Hessmiller said that Marchione told a federal agent he had been trying to stay away from boys under 18 because he was afraid of being caught.

-In 2012, Marchoine told a federal agent who was undercover that he met a 17-year-old during a work trip, tied him up, and paid for sex

-In 2013 he was indicted in federal court on the pornography charges, and later charged with CSC for the sexual contact with his former mentee.

Marchione claimed to the federal judge that he had sought his counseling degree in order to understand his compulsions and inferred that he had possession of the manifesto for educational purposes.

His defense attorney listed reasons why he had the extensive collection of images, saying,

“Mr. Marchione’s viewing of child pornography increased when he began drinking wine heavily and traveling more frequently for work. The wine consumption and travel put Mr. Marchione in a state where his inhibitions were down and he was alone and lonely on the road.”

“Mr. Marchione’s collection was large. But it is important to consider the short duration of time the collecting occurred demonstrating the increase in downloading speed of materials on the Internet in today’s technological age.”

“Mr. Marchione worked a full time job and had a family. He was not on the Internet looking at child pornography 24 hours a day for years on end. Rather, this level of collection was created in a short window of time.”

Prevette said excuses like that don’t hold up in court because to amass that many images, it would take time and know-how.

“Anything when you get into that number, when you get into the thousands of images,” said Prevette. “That’s a large amount of files. That’s a large amount of data and it’s not something that takes place on one click of the mouse. That’s a collection that’s been building over a series of time.”

“These images, typically you can’t just go out and do a simple internet search. You really have to know what you are doing and know what you are looking for and get into this underground community and to really become a trader in this. It’s not by accident.”

Marchione told the federal judge, “I had plans to get rid of it someday.”

“I know what I did was wrong,” he said.

He started crying and went on to say, “I apologize if it means anything. I really want another chance to be with my family again.”

However, the judge was not persuaded.

Robert Jonker said, “Mr. Marchione wanted to leave his collection open for as long as possible to attract other like material.”

“We have an unusually serious case where we have hands-on victims,” he said. “The largest child porn collection I’ve had on my docket.”

“These offenders are out there. We need to stop them,” said Prevette.

For more information on how to contact ICAC if you suspect someone of committing internet crimes against children see the link: